[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., ALA., OHIO, IND.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 23




TEXAS:

Supreme Court grants Texas death row inmate Duane Buck new hearing


The U.S. Supreme Court grant condemned Houston murderer Duane Buck the right to 
ask for a new court hearing on his death sentence.

In a 6-2 decision, the high court mandated that Duane Buck, who has argued for 
years that his death sentenced by racially biased evidence at his trial, be 
allowed to go back to a lower court and request a new sentencing hearing due to 
legal questions in his 1995 case.

Among those reasons was that Buck's own lawyers introduced evidence at his 
trial that he was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he is 
black.

Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said that Buck, in his 
appeals that have continued for years, has "demonstrated both ineffective 
assistance of counsel" and has an "entitlement to relief."

The justices sent the case back to a Houston court for further review.

He could now be resentenced again to death or given a life sentence.

Wednesday's decision came on the 3rd review of Buck's case by the Supreme 
Court, and is 1of the highest-profile death penalty appeals pending in Texas 
due to its racial overtones and because of the effect it could have on other 
cases should Buck's sentence eventually be overturned. His case has been 
watched nationally for years.

It comes at a time when 2 members of the Supreme Court, Justices Ruth Bader 
Ginsburg and Stephen Ginsburg, have argued the court should take another look 
at the constitutionality of the death penalty because of indications that it is 
being applied arbitrarily throughout the country.

Buck, 53, who was sentenced to death for the July 1995 slaying of his 
girlfriend, Debra Gardner, and her friend, Kenneth Butler, after he and Gardner 
had an argument.

Police reports at the time showed Buck shot his own sister and Butler after he 
barged into Gardner's home with a rifle. He then chased Gardner outside the 
residence, and shot her as her young daughter watched.

"The bitch, she deserved it," witnesses quoted Buck as saying after he shot 
Gardner, according to a prison report.

(source: Houston Chronicle)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Ringleader of Greenburg torture, murder case has death penalty conviction 
upheld


The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the 1st-degree murder 
conviction and death penalty imposed against an Irwin man authorities said was 
the ringleader of a group that tortured and killed a mentally disabled woman.

In a 34-page opinion, justices found there was enough evidence to convict Ricky 
Smyrnes and for the jury to sentence him to death.

Smyrnes, 30, was convicted following a 3 week trial in 2013 where prosecutors 
said he led a group of 6 roommates in holding 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty 
captive for nearly 3 days. The group systematically tortured Daugherty then 
stabbed her to death, prosecutors said.

Daugherty's body was discovered wrapped in Christmas lights and stuffed into a 
trash can left in a snow-covered parking lot.

An appeals court rejected a series of arguments from Smyrnes in which he 
claimed Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway improperly allowed evidence at trial 
and that jurors did not correctly weigh evidence during the penalty phase.

The death sentence against codefendant Melvin Knight was overturned last year 
by the state Supreme Court, which ordered he receive a new penalty phase of 
trial.

Knight pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder. Prosecutors said he repeatedly 
stabbed Daugherty at the urging of Smyrnes.

(source: triblive.com)






FLORIDA:

Former Keys man spared death penalty


Prosecutors won't seek the death penalty for 4 of the 5 former students - 1 
formerly from Key Largo - accused in the gruesome machete murder of a teenager 
in the woods of Homestead.

The state announced Tuesday it would only seek to execute the alleged 
ringleader, Kaheem Arbelo, who is believed to have delivered the fatal machete 
blows to 17-year-old Jose Amaya Guardado, whose corpse was found buried in a 
shallow grave near the Homestead Jobs Corp facility.

Arbelo, 22, and 4 others are accused of hatching and carrying out the plot to 
murder Jose outside the live-in school for at-risk students in June 2015.

The others now face life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. They 
are Joseph Cabrera, 24, of Key Largo, Desiray Strickland, 20, Jonathan Lucas, 
19, and Christian Colon, 20.

In January, Cabrera rejected a plea deal that could have meant as little as 10 
years in prison if he agreed to testify against the others. He was arrested in 
Missouri in September 2015, charged with 1st-degree murder and mutilation of a 
body.

Based on his Facebook page, Cabrera seemed to enjoy Job Corps. He had posted 
that he completed a certification in leadership and that he was planning to get 
one in information technology.

The June, 28, 2015, murder raised concerns about oversight and security at Job 
Corps, which operates 125 campuses across the country and falls under the U.S. 
Department of Labor. The program helps at-risk people between the ages of 16 
and 24 earn their high-school degrees and learn vocational skills.

According to an arrest report, the group conspired for 2 weeks to kill 
Guardado. His brother found him buried in the grave in the woods near the 
campus. His body had been hacked so viciously that "his face caved in," 
according to the report.

Arbelo and Strickland had sex in the woods after the group cleaned up the crime 
scene and buried the dead teen, according to the police report. A Miami-Dade 
grand jury later indicted the group on charges of 1st-degree murder.

Strickland did not confess, but was accused of head-butting a homicide 
detective and vandalizing a table during her interview at Miami-Dade police 
headquarters.

Cabrera and Strickland are also awaiting a hearing so a judge can rule whether 
there is enough evidence to keep them behind bars. It's been on hold since a 
judge last month ordered the courtroom closed to the public and the media, 
saying that the "pervasive publicity" surrounding the case jeopardizes the 
right to a fair and impartial jury at a trial down the road.

(source: flkeysnews.com)

****************************

State seeks death penalty in Okeechobee murder case


A man investigators say raped and murdered a young mother of 4 in Okeechobee 
County could get the death penalty.

Prosecutors announced they will ask for death in the case of 21-year-old 
Christopher Shows for the murder of Amanda Suarez.

Leah Suarez, Amanda's mother-in-law, said her focus right now is on her son and 
her 4 grandchildren and keeping Amanda's legacy alive

Amanda's family now knows her alleged killer will face the death penalty.

"We're struggling with that decision but we don't struggle at all in supporting 
our son with what his wishes are," said Suarez.

Her son is now a single father to 4 young children. "They're struggling every 
day," said Suarez, who's helping to raise the children. "They're still having 
temper tantrums and fits and crying. It's hard to sometimes distinguish what's 
a normal 2-year-old fit or temper tantrum versus what the trauma is."

Prosecutor Ashley Albright outlined the reasons for seeking the maximum 
penalty. "One is that it was committed during the course of a burglary, the 2nd 
is it was committed in what we would call a cold, calculated and premeditated 
manner," he explained. "This is one of the worst of the worst cases, 
absolutely."

But Shows' attorney, Stanley Glenn, disagreed. "The death penalty is supposed 
to be for the most horrific, most egregious and most depraved of homicides," 
explained Glenn. "This case just simply is not that."

Suarez said about Shows, "Our wish as grandparents is that we want to make sure 
he's never released."

No trial date is set yet.

(source: WPTV news)






ALABAMA:

Alabama bidding to set execution date for convicted killer


Alabama moved Wednesday to set yet another execution date for a convicted 
killer who has been on death row for more than 30 years and has eluded 7 
previous attempts to put him to death.

State lawyers filed a motion to set an execution date for inmate Tommy Arthur, 
one day after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his latest appeal.

"Arthur has successfully manipulated the state and federal courts with 
meritless litigation to avoid his execution date 7 times," Assistant Attorney 
General J. Clayton Crenshaw wrote in court papers. He requested the date be 
expedited "so that there may be justice in this matter once and for all."

The state is seeking to put Arthur to death with an injection for his 1983 
murder conviction. He was found guilty of the killing of Troy Wicker as the man 
slept inside his Muscle Shoals home.

Investigators said Arthur was having an affair with Wicker's wife and that she 
paid him $10,000 to kill her husband. Arthur was on a prison work-release 
program for the slaying of his sister-in-law at the time of Wicker's murder.

Arthur maintains his innocence and has argued that a lethal injection would 
cause him undue agony. His lawyer, Suhana Han, was not immediately available 
for comment.

On Tuesday, the nation's highest court ruled that his latest appeal did not 
merit their review. That decision came after a last-minute ruling in November 
that blocked Arthur's execution as he sat in a holding cell outside the state's 
lethal injection chamber.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall praised the federal court's decision to 
not hear Arthur's appeal.

"The long wait for justice may be near an end for convicted killed Thomas 
Arthur," he wrote in a statement Tuesday. "For more than 30 years he has fought 
to delay his execution for the 1982 cold-blooded murder of Troy Wicker."

Alabama's 15-page motion detailed each of Arthur's 7 attempts to outlive his 
"long-overdue" death sentence and requested an execution date be set as soon as 
possible.

(source: dailyjournal.net)

*****************

Sonia Sotomayor's Scathing Death Penalty Dissent


[S]cience and experience ... are now revealing that, at least with respect to 
midazolam-centered protocols, prisoners executed by lethal injection are 
suffering horrifying deaths beneath a 'medically sterile aura of peace.' ... 
What cruel irony that the method that appears most humane may turn out to be 
our most cruel experiment yet ... Like a hangman's poorly tied noose or a 
malfunctioning electric chair, midazolam might render our latest method of 
execution too much for our conscience - and the Constitution - to bear.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissenting from the Supreme Court's decision not to 
hear Alabama death row inmate Thomas Arthur's appeal to not die by midazolam 
lethal injection. Arthur proposed a firing squad as a viable alternative, but 
the Eleventh Circuit denied the request.

(source: abovethelaw.com)

*************************

Senate to debate judicial override in death penalty cases


The Alabama Senate could debate a bill that would prohibit judges from imposing 
a death sentence when a jury has recommended life imprisonment.

Alabama is the only state that allows judicial override of sentences in capital 
murder cases.

Republican Sen. Dick Brewbaker of Pike Road said his bill to ban the practice 
is expected to come to the Senate floor for debate Thursday.

Brewbaker says judicial override in death penalty cases is contrary to the 
tradition of American justice that a jury from the community should determine 
both the verdict and sentence.

The Senate Judiciary Committee narrowly approved the bill earlier this session 
to put it in line for a floor vote.

The House Judiciary Committee has approved similar legislation. That bill has 
not yet come to the floor.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Amid controversy in Ohio, more young people are opposing death penalty


A 2016 Pew Research poll has found that opposition to the death penalty being 
used in murder cases is at its lowest since 1972, with 42 % of respondents 
opposing it.

The poll also showed that younger respondents tend to be even more opposed to 
the death penalty; 51 % oppose the death penalty, according to the poll - the 
highest of any age group.

With new opposition, the state continues to face difficulties in administering 
executions.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced on Feb. 10 that the execution dates of death 
row inmates would be postponed.

Despite having 142 people on death row in Ohio, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center (DPIC), the state has not carried out an execution since 
2014. This is due to a botched execution early that year that left Dennis 
McGuire gasping for air for around 25 minutes before the lethal drugs used took 
effect. This forced the state to find a new execution formula thus pausing 
executions.

On Jan. 26, however, a ruling from a federal judge said he believed that the 
new 3-drug combo the state planned to use could not ensure that inmates being 
put to death would be in a deep enough sleep to not feel any pain during the 
process.

Associate Professor of sociology David Kessler, Ph.D., said he sees this 
downward trend as a good thing.

"We're finding that we make a lot of mistakes," Kessler said.

Since 1972, 157 death row inmates have later been found innocent and freed 
before executions, while at least 10 more people in that same time frame were 
later believed to be innocent despite being executed, according to the DPIC.

Anthony Erhardt, president of the Kent State College Democrats, said that they 
"echo the Democratic Party's stance" on executions, which is that "it has no 
place in the United States of America," according to the National Democratic 
Party platform. In that same statement, they called the death penalty "a cruel 
and unusual form of punishment" and cited the cost to taxpayers, lack of crime 
deterrence and number of exonerations as other reasons they are opposed to it.

The 2016 Pew study also cited numbers from the previous year that showed 63 % 
of respondents find the death penalty morally acceptable, while 31 % find it 
morally objectionable.

President of the Kent State College Republicans Jennifer Hutchinson falls 
within the latter category. She said that, although the group does not have a 
collective stance on the death penalty, she is not in favor of it,

"I\'m somebody that's not very pro-execution for moral reasons and for 
financial reasons, to be honest," Hutchinson said.

"Our justice system is not, by any means, perfect enough to make irreversible 
punishments," Kessler said. "More and more people are aware of this problem ... 
and they are changing their minds about something they can't correct or 
compensate for. I don't think we should be using capital punishment anymore. We 
can keep society safe without it."

(source: kentwired.com)






INDIANA:

Indiana asks US Supreme Court to hear death penalty case


Indiana officials have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a death penalty 
case stemming from a 1998 triple homicide in Mishawaka.

The South Bend Tribune reports that 49-year-old Wayne Kubsch was twice 
convicted of 3 counts of murder and sentenced to death for the brutal killings 
of his wife, Beth Kubsch, her ex-husband, Rick Milewski, and her 10-year-old 
son, Aaron Milewski.

A federal appeals court reversed the convictions in September, ruling Kubsch's 
2nd trial in 2005 violated his right to a defense because the court barred 
evidence that might've cast doubt on his guilt.

The U.S. Court of Appeals ordered Indiana officials to release Kubsch or give 
him another trial. Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill's office filed a 
petition this week that asks the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing the 
appeals court misinterpreted the law.

(source: Associated Press)